Converse opens new trail after years of setbacks

Now, they finally have one.

Workers finished up paving the Converse Junction Trail on Oct. 30, allowing pedestrians for the first time to use the 2-mile asphalt walkway.

The trail runs from the east side of Converse to the small unincorporated town of Mier.

On a warm, bright Wednesday morning, Richard Mobley and Greg Warnock, who serve as the co-chairs of the committee leading the project, pulled into the small parking lot at the trailhead located on North 1000 West.

The two strolled down the newly paved trail and walked across a bright red bridge spanning an infrequently used railroad sitting more than 20 feet below.

That bridge was one of the hardest parts of the project to complete, but thanks to the efforts of Mobley and Warnock, along with volunteers, it was installed in late August.

Now, the walking bridge proudly greets visitors to the trail with a metallic sign reading “Converse Junction.”

As the two retired Converse natives talk about all the work it took to turn what was formerly a railroad owned by Penn Central into a first-class trail, two walkers pass by on the bridge with their black Labrador Joe, enjoying the abnormally warm November morning before heading to work.

The walkers are Julie Vossler and Lori Watson, who said they’ve been taking advantage of the trail nearly every day since the asphalt was finished. In fact, they were using it even before it was paved, walking on the unfinished surface.

“We used to walk around town all the time, but this is so much better,” Watson said.

“Love it. Love it. It’s the best,” Vossler said. “So many people are using it.”

Those are the kinds of comments Mobley and Warnock like to hear after spending more than two years applying for grants, heading up fundraisers, negotiating purchases with property owners and cutting through all the red tape associated with trail projects.

“Now that (the project) has gotten to this point, I can’t even describe how I feel,” Mobley said. “I think it will be wonderful for the community. It already is.”

Converse officials first started a push to develop the trail more than 12 years ago. Back then, it looked like the trail would be finished in no time after the town landed a $1.2 million grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation.

With the new funding, officials started the preliminary steps to build the trail. That included conducting an environmental study, surveying the land and completing concept designs.

But the project began to lose steam, and in 2013, INDOT yanked its funding, saying the town was taking too long to complete the project.

Mobley said he’s not sure why the trail wasn’t finished after the town received the $1.2 million grant, but he has a theory.

“You manage the project, or the project manages you,” he said. “What happened here was the project managed the community. Nobody managed the project. That’s not a knock on anybody. People have full-time jobs. They’re busy. Greg and I, we’re retired.”

The project was back at square one, but that didn’t stop the community from wanting a trail.

And as Mobley saw it, there wasn’t a good reason why it shouldn’t have one.

“Every little town in the state seems to have some kind of walking trail,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why can’t Converse have a nice little 2-mile trail?’

So the project committee started applying for other grants. Not long afterward, they were awarded $100,000 in funding from the Indiana Heritage Trust to help purchase property. That got the ball rolling again, and the committee moved forward with buying up land.

During that time, they landed a $150,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to help pay for construction costs.

That grant required a financial match from the town, which the town council approved. And just like that, the project was in full swing again.

“The council wanted to see this happen as bad as Rich and I wanted to see it,” Warnock said. “People had been waiting for this.”

“If it hadn’t been for the town council financially supporting this, and morally supporting this, it never would have happened,” Mobley said. “You really have to have the support of the community for you to finish a trail project.”

And that’s something they’ve had all along. Once construction finally began earlier this year, residents jumped on board to help anyway they could, Mobley said.

That included someone donating a huge pile of dirt to fill in a pond that ran too close to the trail. Another resident volunteered to mow around the trailhead area to keep it looking nice.

Now, Mobley said, he hopes the community will continue to support the project, both financially and through volunteering, to put the finishing touches to it, including installing signage and completing some cosmetic work like replanting grass.

He said they still need around $100,000 to fully fund the project and have enough money to totally finish it.

Anyone who would like to donate to the project can mail checks made out to "Converse Junction Trail" to Converse City Hall, P.O. Box 473, Converse, IN, 46919.

Although the 2-mile trail was finished less than two weeks ago, Warnock said the committee is already looking to the future.

Next year, he said, officials in charge of the Sweetser Switch Trail plan to extend it 1 mile west and connect to the Converse Junction Trail. Once that happens, people can ride on a paved walkway from town nearly all the way down to Richmond.

Mobley said they also want to extend the Converse trail west and connect it to the Nickel Plate Trail at some point in the future, which would link it up to a national bike route that extends from Canada to Louisville, Kentucky.

All those plans are great, he said, but for now, they’re just happy the town finally has the trail it always had hoped for.

“Before, you always had to go somewhere else to use a trail,” Mobley said. “You had to load up your bikes and drive somewhere. Now, you hop on your bike in Converse and you’re on your way.”